Doing what is needed to solve nation’s fiscal woes (2 letters)

The Bowles and Simpson debt reduction plan falls far short of what most conservatives believe necessary to solve our nation’s financial woes. However, it may well be the face-saving solution for both parties in the short term. Accepted in toto, neither party could claim victory nor be damned for defeat. The burden would then fall on the respective political parties to truly inform and convince the electorate of the merits of their plan for our nation’s future. America’s destiny and watershed moment would be the 2014 elections. Given that choice, I believe less government, less taxes and reduced government spending and regulation would be the prevailing view.

Carl Miller, Leadville

This letter was published in the Feb. 23 edition.

We need to raise taxes on the rich high enough to stop cuts to social programs and expand them. My friends and neighbors are saddled with staggering health care debt, accruing student debt that will last a lifetime, and are losing their homes. My peers are losing hope for success and the future. Communities of color still face the harshest impacts of our economic inequality.

Meanwhile, the 1 percent are thriving, richer than ever. I know because I am a young person who was born and raised in the 1 percent. I had private education, no student debt, consistent health care, and the comfort and confidence of my family’s financial safety net. I know there are enough resources for everyone to have the food, housing, health care and education they need.

Raise my taxes. Tax the rich. The Buffet rule and higher capital gains and estate taxes are just a start.

Mackenzie Liman, Denver

This letter was published in the Feb. 23 edition.

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Meckenzie, there aren’t enough, so called, rich in the entire country, no matter what rate they were taxed at, to pay for all of the social programs, let alone expand them. Over half of the people that pay capital gains taxes make less the $75K a year. Estate taxes, also known as death taxes, are taxes on the accumulations of a life time that have already been taxed when the wealth was acquired. Trust me Mackenzie, your taxes are going to go up, along with EVERYONE else in the country, the government has no choice. It is just a matter of when and how much, and the longer we wait the more it is going to have to go up.

Dano2

Over half of the people that pay capital gains taxes make less the $75K a year.

Evidence please.

Best,

D

thor

Why didn’t the oldfart talk about the one thing that we have evidence for, that we have a spending problem.

andyandy

Evidence isn’t his “thing,” Thor.

mrfxx

Actually – there is a prevailing lie about estate taxes being “taxes on the accumulations of a life time that have already been taxed”. I happen to have some stock which I purchased as part of an employee stock option plan over more than a decade. The stock price at purchase time varied from about $70/share to almost $200/share. If I drop dead tomorrow and those shares are “handed over” to my heir, they are valued at the highest value which occurs either tomorrow or within a 6 month period of my death (today the stock is just over $200/share), incurs no taxes until sold – and the tax base is the difference between the value determined at (or near my death) and the selling price! Taxes have NEVER been paid on the increase in value (in the case of some shares almost triple what I paid).

The same is true when a family home goes into an estate – my parents bought their home for about $21,000 in the early 60s. When they died and it went it went into the family trust about 50 years later, it was valued at about $360,000 – so when it was sold at $450,000, the profit of $90,000 was all that was taxed.

Those are just 2 examples from 2 estates that aren’t LARGE ENOUGH to be hit by estate taxes at all (and please note that the 1%ers often put their estates in trust funds and bypass ALL estate taxes on money that has NEVER been taxed).

Dano2

there is a prevailing lie about estate taxes being “taxes on the accumulations of a life time that have already been taxed”

The other prevailing lie is what I italicized and there is no evidence for (or reply forthcoming, as there is no evidence for the false claim). I don’t know which shill spreads that lie – Krazy Beck, Limbaugh, who knows?

Best,

D

theoldfart

Mackenzie, since you and your family are part of the 1 percent, you and your family doesn’t have to wait the government to do something to help your friends and neighbors economic situation. If you really believe that economic inequality is the problem then why don’t you and your family just give your friends and neighbors a portion of your wealth so that you and your friends and neighbors can all have the same incomes and wealth. It would be a lot more efficient to do it directly than sending the money to the government so a large portion of it can be wasted by the bureaucracy before it get to the people that need it. Set an example, show us how it should be done.

Dano2

sending the money to the government so a large portion of it can be
wasted by the bureaucracy before it get to the people that need it

Stimulus works and government creates jobs and returns productivity gains to labor?! Who knew?

Best,

D

thor

I’m sure you favor stimulus, so I’m confused by your response. Since the stimulus didn’t work, I’m even more confused. However, I don’t expect to get a reply that will make any more sense.

GregoryR

His response makes sense if you live in the reality Dano does which is quite separate from the one the vast majority of posters on this board live in.

Steve R

Makes sense? Uhh ok moron, talk about not living in the real world. Please tell me how the stimulus worked and don’t try and use the unmeasurable lie of “jobs saved”. The stimulus was a failure of epic proportions and anyone that “lives in the real world” knows this”

jayreadyjay

It was successful because it rewarded Obama’s his Democrats cronies. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

GregoryR

I think you need to reread my post after taking a reading comprehension class. I in no way stated that the stimulus was successful. Oh and kindly knock off the name calling.

andyandy

You figure the recession just got reversed on its own? Please explain how it was a “failure of epic proportions.” I’ve seen some failures of epic proportions, and none of them looked like that.

Dano2

I was simply using the logic of his argument. That’s what the argument was implying. Very easy to understand. I even italicized the relevant portion of the argument for everyone to understand.

Maybe I didn’t type slowly enough…hmmm…have to work on that. How am I doing now?

I saw them, rebuilding the 285 corridor, and the Santa Fe/ Alameda/ I-25 exchange. It sure looked like they were working to me!

thor

You are mixing up putting people to work doing temporary jobs with stimulating the economy in a significant way. If the stimulus really worked, our economy would be in better shape, but its not. All the stimulus did was add to the deficit. And, it proved we have a spending problem.

primafacie

Why be a piker, Ms. Liman? Impose a 100 percent tax on every penny earned by the “rich.” That should cover petty cash for a few weeks and, of course, work for only one year.

We’re talking about a relatively small piece of a $3.7 trillion government. The dirty little secret is, even with the $80-odd billion “cut” through sequester, the feds will still spend something on the order of $15 billion more next year than they’ve spent this year. More.

GregoryR

Perhaps instead of writing a letter the author could convince her folks to be more charitable or to give her inheritance to the poor.
Seriously though even if the government took every penny from the rich we’d back to where we are right now in no time at all. Like it or lump spending cuts have to be part of the solution and neither party can have sacred cows (all you conservatives out there that means military spending).

Obama proposed the sequestration and set it up so that the military would be cut more than the non-military would (Military cuts would amount to 7.2% of their budget–the other areas would see a 4.2% cut while some parts of the budget would not be cut).

Greg, Coffman is not the exception. In fact, Obama seems to be in a panic because he thought the right wouldn’t go along with the military cuts so the left wouldn’t have to go along with their part of the bargain. It seems the right is willing to take the military cuts and now Obama is campaigning to overturn sequestration.

peterpi

Get real. The Republicans are clamoring like crazy that the defense cuts, and only the defense cuts, must be stopped at all costs. Sen. McCain is about to have apoplexy yelling that if the defense cuts go through, Luxembourg will be occupying New York City because our military will be impotent.
Coffman is the rare exception.

StillUndecided

I do not believe Ms. Liman. I do not believe that her family is part of the 1% and that she has led this life of privilege. More likley, her family comes from the middle class at best, she attended a liberal arts school where she racked up loads of student debt obtaining a degree that did not translate into a good-paying job and is writing letters to the editor since it is too cold to set up another Occupy Denver camp downtown.
Someone from the 1% with a true desire to help would not write letters advocating higher taxes. They would use their education and their considerable wealth to set up funds or foundations to provide assistance. This letter was just all-consuming jealousy bubbling to the surface and needing to be vented.

Just my opinion – of course.

primafacie

I wouldn’t presume any such thing about Ms. Liman’s socio-economic position. However it does seem part of the lefty playbook to complain about not being taxed enough, as if to suggest they can’t spread the wealth on their own, without the force of governmental mandate. Some do such deeds on their own, of course, as do many so-called “rich” without saying a word. But the left can’t rest until everyone is forced to play along, even if they’re already doing so privately.

Guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 150 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address, day and evening phone numbers, and may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.

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